Twistor by Gene; John; Wolfe Cramer Page B

assume the voice of calmness and rationality, leaving him on the defensive. He must try to stay calm. He'd need perfect control for his meeting with Martin Pierce. That young asshole! he raged silently to himself.
    He got up from the desk, breathed deeply again, and walked back down the hall to the reception area. Darlene was talking quietly into the microphone of a small comm set when he returned. He inhaled the scent of her perfume, full of musk and implications. She looked up to give him The Smile again as he sat down. 'I was just talking to Mr Pierce. He's real-ly sorry to keep you waiting so long, and he says that he'll only be a few minutes more. Can I get you some coffee, Professor Saxon?'
    ' Yes, coffee would be nice, Darlene,' he said, thinking that what he actually needed was a stiff drink. But he quite admired the view as she walked down the hall to the coffee maker, and he began to wonder how much progress he could make in the next few minutes.
    It was fully twenty minutes later when Martin Pierce, thirty-ish, tall with a charcoal gray three-piece business suit, silk tie, and neat British officer's mustache, finally emerged from the inner office and welcomed Allan warmly. Too warmly, considering the situation, Saxon thought as Pierce guided him into the large, well-appointed corner suite with its sweeping view of the San Francisco waterfront and Marin County beyond. ' Please, be seated here, Allan.' He waved to a designer chair of rosewood and black leather. 'Excuse me for just a second. I'll have to rearrange some appointments so we will have enough time to work on our problem.'
    Saxon grimaced as he sat down in the low comfortable chair, then smiled. As Pierce walked away, Saxon considered that perhaps it wasn't so bad that the bastard had kept him waiting. Now he had some moral advantage, with Pierce a bit on the defensive. Ignoring the view, he silently marshaled his arguments.
    Pierce strode to Darlene's desk in the outer office, glancing back to make sure that Saxon was out of earshot. That call of his probably was important,' he said in a low voice. 'At least it's worth following up. Thanks for setting him up, listening in, and then bringing the recording to my attention. You deserve another efficiency bonus. Now here's what I want you to do while I have him in the office. First, type a transcript of the call into a computer file. Combine that transcript with our dossier file on Saxon, then make a copy with all references to Megalith removed so that it might have come from anyone. Put the final version in my file area on the computer system. Second, have Communications set me up with a secure net-path using at least five untraceable nodes. I'll need to contact the spooks we deal with in Seattle with no possibility of a traceback. Our investigators there can dig up some more information on Dr Saxon and his little friends and what they're on to.
    'Finally, when the old lecher comes out of my office, see if you can get him to invite you out this evening without being too obvious about it. If you can manage it, get him well lubricated and see what you can get him to tell about what he's been doing. I want to know all about his so-called business enterprises and also his work at the university, particularly this new experiment that was discussed in the phone call. You know the routine. And enter your report into his dossier file tomorrow morning.'
    'Sure,' said Darlene, winking at Pierce and giving him The Smile. The old fart thinks he's God's gift to women. It oughta be easy.'
    Pierce leaned down, patted her bottom, and strode back to his office. Seating himself behind his uncluttered oiled-rosewood desk, he looked across at Saxon. Saxon was dressed as usual, a bit more dapper than the garden-variety academic with his neat blazer and coordinated slacks, Italian loafers, and one of the oversize silk bow ties that he affected. He needs a haircut, Pierce thought, noting the bushy hair, and he looks a bit down in